In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Signed by Capote, Book Club Edition, 1965

Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Random House, Inc., 1965. Book club edition, first printing. Signed by Capote on title page. Octavo. In publisher’s maroon cloth board with original clipped dust jacket. Presented with a new archival ¼ leather and cloth clamshell. 

This is the first book club edition of In Cold Blood, signed by the author Truman Capote on the title page. The book was published by Random House, New York in 1965. The contents of this book first appeared in The New Yorker in a slightly different form before being officially published in 1965. This nonfiction true crime book was simultaneously printed out of both New York and Toronto, Canada in the first year of its publication. The book is presented in its original dust jacket and maroon cloth boards.  This book and dust jacket were manufactured by the H. Wolf Manufacturing Co. in New York and designed by Tere Loprete. 

Truman Capote was born in New Orleans in 1924. He was educated in both New York and Connecticut and worked in the Art Department of The New Yorker. He reached his peak of literary success with In Cold Blood, in which he combined the dialogue and narrative of a novel with the truth of a nonfiction piece. Capote learned of the ‘quadruple murder,’ a true crime that was committed in Kansas, by reading about it in The New York Times. Before the killers were caught, Capote traveled to Kansas with childhood friend Nelle Harper Lee in order to compile first-hand testimonies and investigator notes from the crimes. 

Capote spent six years developing the story told of In Cold Blood by combining various accounts from the incidents into a cohesive crime story. The work was an instant success after publishing, and was read by critics as a pioneering example of true crime literature.

CONDITION:

Good condition overall. Publisher’s maroon cloth boards with clipped dust jacket. Dust jacket has only light chipping along its extremities. New mylar to dust jacket, for protection. Presumed Book Club edition, with stamp placed slightly higher than usual on lower cover. Signed by Capote on the title page, in black ink. Presented with a new ¼ leather and cloth clamshell with raised bands, gilt tooling and titles to the spine, and an inlay of Capote and a gilt facsimile signature stamped on the front.

Clamshell dimensions: 9 5/8 H x 7 1/8" W x 2 1/8" D; Book dimensions: 8 5/8" H x 6 1/2" W x 1 1/2" D.




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